Result ideation session Group 1
July 2022
Tying untouched worlds through generosity
Thinking the unthinkable sometimes leads to doing the seemingly impossible. During a brainstorming session, the group, which consists of several students from the Middle East and Asia, decided to bring the Cosmopolitan Chicken project of Koen Vanmechelen to Muslim communities. Their reasoning was as simple as it was daring. The ambition of the CCP is to link the local to the global. But apart from exhibitions in Beirut and Jerusalem, the group concluded that neither the CCP nor other Vanmechelen projects have ever been linked to local communities in the Arab or Muslim world. Hence, the group transferred a Vanmechelen Janus carpet to a mosque in Maasmechelen, where they launched a new era for the CCP project, connecting its generosity to untouched worlds. They planned the start of the generosity project in 2024 in Muscat and let it finish in Kabul in 2035. In total, the tour will span 22 countries. Unknown to them was that Vanmechelen’s carpet had subconsciously appealed to them. Janus was the god of new beginnings, gates, transitions, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and conflict endings in ancient times. Generosity via art respectfully shared in a context once considered too antithetical can create a wormhole for the benefit of all Mankind. The group has found an unexpected door out of the cage we accept as our reality. By daring to do the unimaginable, they opened a portal to what was once deemed impossible.
Group 1
Dries Truyers, Yousef Arafi, Elien Stouten, Karo De Nijs, Mohamad Kayali, Alexandra Lichaa
Feedback Transdisciplinary Team
Group 1 demonstrates its interpretation of generosity through action: in addition to a short, theoretical approach, they cast their ideas in a video in which an art carpet by Koen Vanmechelen plays a leading role. Can generosity connect different worlds? Their proposition is clear: generosity can break down barriers; according to Group 1 it is able to bring different values and cultures closer together.
As part of the Chapter Generosity transdisciplinary team, artist Koen Vanmechelen selected Janus as the artwork to integrate the ideations of group 1 with the feedback and reflections of the transdisciplinary team.
Impressions Group 1
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